So you want to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the playoffs. That's going to be the extreme opposite of easy, what with their steady march toward historic greatness and all.

Still, there might be ways.

We'll get to those in a moment, but it's not a spoiler to admit up front that finding these "ways" involved picking so many nits. It's the best we could do under the circumstances, as these Dodgers just don't offer much in the way of vulnerable exhaust ports.

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At 103-45, their .696 winning percentage is presently the 12th-best mark in Major League Baseball's modern history. Of the 11 teams ahead of the Dodgers on that list, nine made it to the Fall Classic, and six won it. Then there are the 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates, who played before the modern conception of the World Series debuted in 1903.

The Dodgers' run differential paints a picture of an even more dominant team. At plus-330 with 14 games left to go, they're in position to slot in at third all-time behind the New York Yankees of 1927 (plus-377) and 1939 (plus-411), both of whom won the World Series.

It's a little weird, then, that it actually is possible to find odds that don't overwhelmingly favor the Dodgers to win it all for the second time in the last three years. FanGraphs, for example, sandwiches them in between the Houston Astros and New York Mets with a 28.1 percent chance of getting to the World Series. Of winning it? They're barely on top at 17.4 percent.

This alone makes it possible to imagine the downfall of the 2022 Dodgers in the abstract. As far as what, specifically, could trip them up in reality, let's discuss.

 

Psh, Their Offense Isn't So Tough

It is, of course, not true that the Dodgers offense isn't so tough.

At 5.44 runs per game, they lead the league in scoring by nearly half a run. They also rank fourth in the majors with 201 home runs, and they've more recently boosted themselves to a tie for first in that department since the All-Star break. Because home runs tend to correlate with success in October, this is a good omen for them.

As much as Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Trea Turner stand out, what really makes the Dodgers lineup so dangerous is the depth that manager Dave Roberts has to work with. They're the only NL team with as many as six hitters with a 120 OPS+ and 10-plus home runs.